What Are The Problems With Fly Tipping
- Posted by:
- Admin
- Tags:
- Posted date:
- 21-10-2021
This article explores the problems with fly tipping. Find out how fly tipping destroys the local area and the causes of fly-tipping.
What is fly-tipping?
I'm sure you've heard of fly-tipping at some point, but do you really know what it means? 'Fly-tipping' is the act of illegal dumping of waste or unwanted items.
By illegal, what we mean is a place not designated for waste disposal. For example instead of using a skip or taking waste to a tip, 'fly-tippers' will discard their junk in a local ginnel, a field out in the countryside, or a neighbour's front garden.
It can't be understated how awful this is not only for the local community, but for the environment too.
How fly-tipping destroys the local area.
What a lot of people don't realise when they start fly-tipping, is how harmful a lot of the substances found within household rubbish and waste can be for the local area.
Chemicals and materials found in day-to-day objects could be incredibly harmful to wildlife if consumed.
That's not to mention the plague of animals becoming trapped, suffocated or strangled by plastic bags, beer rings and ropes.
It's not just the wildlife that has to suffer at the hands of fly-tippers. It has an awful effect on planet Earth too.
Ditching unwanted waste can seriously impact the local area's ecosystem, as well as harm the ground directly below the dumping.
Toxins escape from the waste and will find their way into the soil, stopping the growth of greenery into the future.
The toxins can even seep into plants, passing them onto all kinds of insects and other critters.
What are the causes of fly-tipping?
People will fly-tip for all kinds of reasons. Different perpetrators will have different motives for committing the act, but the most common reason for fly-tipping is for making financial savings.
People don't want to pay to hire skips and licenses are often needed for taking industrial waste to tips. A lack of access to disposal facilities and general laziness also play their part in the crime.
The effect of fly-tipping.
Larger fly-tipped items just as wardrobes or washing machines can pose a huge risk to children if they start playing on or around the waste. Children can become trapped in fridges which are left in places where kids might want to play.
Fly-tipping can also have an awful effect on a community's reputation.
Going from a nice place to live, to somewhere neglected, polluted and dilapidated.
A pile of unwanted waste and rubbish full of decaying food and other substances can invite all kinds of unwanted creatures like huge swarms of flies and rats to your local area.
Rats are especially unwanted as they can carry disease and can be extremely difficult to get rid of.
Why is fly-tipping a problem?
It sounds unbelievable, but it's true that every year, the government spends around 90 to 200 million on investigating and clearing up fly-tipping crimes. This cost is supported by all the country's taxpayers and private landowners.
Fly-tipping hurts local waste disposal businesses and services too.
These companies operate within the law and have their reputation tarnished by people disposing of rubbish wherever they please.
There's also an obvious impact on the reputation of the local community.
Property prices can rapidly decline as the area is seen as run-down or unclean.
Local businesses can also suffer as people may want to keep their distance from the location.
The Damages Of Fly-Tipping
Fly-tipping can have a dreadful effect on the local environment, which can lead to dreadful potential harm to the health of residents living in the community.
Hazardous Chemicals found in the dumped waste can leak into the soil and contaminate the earth below them. These chemicals can make the ground unable to grow greenery in the future, or even worse can infect the plants that do grow there. These plants can then pass on the chemicals to nearby wildlife, harming them too.
Fly-tipping is an extremely serious crime that isn't taken lightly. A criminal who is caught while fly-tipping can be given a fixed penalty notice from the local authority which can range from £150 to up to £400.
For the year 2019/20, the English government have reported that local authorities dealt with 976,000 fly-tipping crimes. An alarmingly large amount of these fly-tips involved asbestos, which can cause exceptionally serious medical conditions such as pleural mesothelioma, as cancer which affects the lining of the lungs.
The substance is so dangerous that it should only be removed from a home if absolutely necessary and requires a qualified technician to take it out. This all to say, dumping it in an alley or in a field is not only putting people's lives at risk but also highly illegal.
Day-to-day lives can be majorly affected by simple acts of fly-tipping which many see as harmless. Property values can plummet as the local area begins to gain a reputation for being dirty or unclean.
Local businesses can lose trade as customers outside the community may not want to visit the area. Fly-tipping can also cause infestations of pests, which come with significant health risks.
The cost of fly-tipping
It is estimated that it costs somewhere near 4 million each month for councils to deal with fly-tipping crimes around the country. A huge sum of money which is being wasted for no reason at all, because people don't want to rent a skip or are too lazy to properly dispose of the rubbish.
The council's budget comes straight from the local taxpayers and it's a shame that these people are footing the bill for people who cannot be bothered to dispose of their waste in a legal manner.
Call us today, and we can give advice on what would be the best-sized skip for your end of tenancy cleaning out.